Stormy Weather
Special introduction and Q&A with Jenny Lumet (granddaughter of Lena Horne), moderated by Boston Globe columnist Renee Graham.
Lena Horne, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Cab Calloway, and Fats Waller are only some of the acts featured in this showcase of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s, during an era when these performers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions. Don’t miss the amazing Nicholas Brothers and their “Jumpin’ Jive” dance sequence—Fred Astaire himself said it was the greatest movie musical number he’d ever seen. The relationship between a World War I vet who aspires to be a dancer (Robinson) and a popular singer (Horne) grounds the spectacle in story.
About Jenny Lumet
Jenny Lumet is the author of Rachel Getting Married for which she received the 2008 New York Film Critics Circle Award, 2008 Toronto Film Critics Association Award, and 2008 Washington D.C Film Critics Association Award. She also received a 2008 NAACP Image Award. She is also the author of the screen adaptation of The Center Cannot Hold, The Language of Flowers, and doctored Remember Me, Bobbie Sue, Honeymoon With Harry, and The Mummy. She is currently at work on the Untitled Monsters Franchise for Universal Studios.
She authored the pilots The Weissmans of Westport, Crazytown, and The Beresfords and consulted for Fox Television’s Sleepy Hollow. Jenny is presently an E.P. on Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Untitled Picard Series. Jenny has a Pilot with CBS television, and a series Pilot for the U.K.’s Blueprint Pictures.
She has authored several other original screenplays including Kingdom of Louie and Sambo. She serves on the Council of the Writers Guild of America East and the Board of the Writers Guild Initiative. She generated and chairs the WGAE’s first Diversity Caucus. She is an Executive Director of BINDERCON, a conference for Women and Non-gender conforming writers, and holds screenwriting seminars for Women of Color, and Women over 40
Jenny Lumet lives in Manhattan with her two children.
About Renée Graham (moderator)
Renée Graham is a columnist for the Globe’s op-ed page. She started as a general assignment reporter, and then moved to features and arts covering music, film, and television as a writer and critic. She also wrote a weekly pop culture column.
